Crawling?!?! Already??!?!?

It's official. Ian is crawling at 6.5 months of age. He won't crawl towards just anything, but apparently the TiVo remote provided enough incentive. :-) I guess we'll be doing some more baby proofing this weekend!



In other news, I'm quite proud of myself for billing 11 hours today, but still making it home in time to play with and feed Ian before his 7 pm bedtime. Being a working mom is definitely tough!

We're Biting and Sitting

My son now has two teeth. I knew he had one bottom tooth and I didn't think the other one was even close to coming out. I even told my mom this morning that the other one wasn't close to coming out. And yet, there it was. It was just breaking the surface of his bottom gum this morning! Cool?!? Right? Except, now he is BITING me when I'm breastfeeding him. Not good. That little sucker is SHARP! Somehow, he was calm enough this morning to take this picture.





Please ignore the dripping snotting nose that he has proudly displayed for the last week or so. I'm not sure how we're going to tell when his top teeth come in. I stuck my finger in his mouth to feel around today and yep, he bit me. Little bastard.

In other news, Ian sat up today on his own! We were pretty shocked. He was on his stomach, scooted backwards into the corner of the room and got stuck. So I moved him back out into the middle of the room and placed him on his stomach again. Except when I looked back 2 minutes later, he was sitting! I asked my husband if he put him in a sitting position. Nope. This happened again later again today. Finally, tonight, I caught him doing it on video. Proof!

And he's been getting into a sitting position all night and getting faster and faster and more efficient when doing it. It's crazy seeing how fast he learns things! Amazing. I LOVE being a parent (well, except for the chewed-upon nipples :-) )

Mastitis - I Haz It

I woke up on Monday morning at 4:30 am and my right breast was engorged and really super duper painful. After much groaning and rolling over, I decided that I needed to get up and pump. I was surprised that I needed to do this since Ian has been sleeping through the night for the last month and a half and I haven't had a problem. I think things got screwy because last week was my first week back at work and so I was pumping a lot more than breastfeeding. Anyway, I pumped and my boob felt mildly better but still hurt. I tried to go back to bed but I was just sort of feeling miserable and cold. I got through the day at work, but my boob still hurt when I came home last night. I showed it to my husband and he noticed that it was pretty red on the underside. Ruh roh. Those are some good signs of mastitis (or so says Dr. Google). I debated for a long time whether or not my symptoms were bad enough to go to the doctor. I had a lot of breast tenderness and the redness alarmed me. But I had no fever or aches or other flu-like symptoms. But, hey, I LOVE medical care (and I'll admit that I'm a hypochondriac that was slightly worried that my symptoms meant some strange form of breast cancer) and so I decided to see my midwife today. She said it was really good that I came in. She wasn't absolutely sure it was mastitis but she said that giving me a course of antibiotics was probably 80% the right thing to do and 20% overkill. Within hours of taking the first antibiotic pill, I felt better. The pain and redness were almost gone. And the body aches that I had (which I had attributed to weekend painting) were also almost gone. To me, this is proof that I did, in fact, have mastitis. I know that antibiotics can work that quickly because when I have UTIs, I always feel better within hours of taking the antibiotic. So now I'm REALLY happy that I went for medical care because apparently this could have gotten a lot worse really fast.

My only bitch...this is a TEN-day course of antibiotics! And they have to be taken FOUR times a day! And they have to be taken on an empty stomach - so 1 hour before eating or 2-3 hours after eating. Oh well.

Videos of my Sweet Baby

I took a bunch of videos of Ian today. I wanted to capture how he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks. He hasn't yet figured out that he can move his hands forward and crawl. So for now he does this and he pushes himself backwards with his hands.

The next video is of Ian laughing. God I love that sound. And I'm happy it's now on the internet because I can play it over and over while I'm at work. I could listen to that sound forever. Ian is pretty ticklish and so I was able to get him laughing while tickling his belly. I have to be careful not to tickle him too much or else those little squeals of laughter turn into screams of annoyance and general pissiness. :-)

6 months old!

Ian is 6 months old today. I can't believe it. He is the best thing that ever happened to me (besides meeting and marrying my husband).

Official 6 month chair photos:

He didn't want to stay put!

At 6 months old, he is sitting up without any support, getting onto his hands and knees and rocking and has one bottom tooth!

More later about my return to work and Ian's daycare experience so far.

Back to Work!

It's time. My 6 month blissful maternity leave is over. I go back to work tomorrow.* I'm ready now. I adore my son. I love every single part of him, even when he is screaming in frustration when the pacifier is just one inch too far away for him to reach. And I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the time that we have spent together. I've watched him go from an infant who only knew to feed, sleep and poop to a happy, smiling, calm, personable, interactive baby that loves to eat sweet potatoes, peas, pears and bananas and who can sit-up without support. But I love using my brain and I actually like what I do. I'm really excited to get back into the swing of things.

But man! It is HARD to get him ready for daycare. I had to make-up 4 four-ounce bottles and smack on each one a bright red label that announced his name, the date and HEY THERE IS BREASTMILK IN HERE! Then I had to decide what solid foods he was going to eat tomorrow and put those in the bag too. Finally, you have to fill out the daily sheet with any special instructions. Thank god we already dropped all of his other crap (extra clothing, sheets, diapers, wipes, etc.) at the daycare center. I always joke that for each pound of baby, you have at least another pound of baby junk.

I know he'll do fine at daycare. My main concerns are (a) my husband actually picking him up on time and (b) pumping at work. I'm crossing my fingers that I will continue to produce enough milk for Ian to drink until he turns 1 and we can start giving him dairy. Wish us luck!!!

* I actually started to work this weekend because there was a great project with a great partner that needed attention before Monday.

First Tooth - 5 months, 3 weeks

Ian appears to be cutting his first tooth - the right front one on the bottom! He woke up crying last night at 3 am. He did this the night before and went back to sleep within 15 minutes, so we didn't think much of it. Except he kept crying and crying last night. I soothed him after 30 minutes by picking him up and holding him, but as soon as I put him back in his crib, he started crying again. I didn't want to feed him because I didn't think he was hungry and I didn't want him getting back into the habit of expecting food in the middle of the night. So after another 15 minutes of crying, I finally suspected teething and stuck my fingers in his mouth with a little baby orajel and sure enough, I felt the rough edge of a little tooth. I also gave him a little Tylenol and he fell asleep again at 4 am. In the light of day, I can see the white edge of the tooth poking out of his gum. How exciting! This also explains why he has been so fussy while nursing lately. He's been pulling off a lot and smacking me with his hand. The doctor said that I could start using Motrin now that he's 6 months old and so I gave him some of that today. Let's just hope he doesn't use this new tooth on me!

Ian Does the Downward Dog

Ian is not quite 6 months old and hasn't figured out how to crawl forward. But he scoots backwards a lot and does something that looks a whole like the yoga downward dog position. See for yourself!

6 month doctor's visit

Ian had his 6 month doctor's visit today. Here are his stats:

Height: 28.5 inches, 100th+ percentile
Weight 17 pounds, 14.2 ounces, ~60th percentile
Head circumference: 44.5 centimeters, 75th percentile

I'm shocked at how tall Ian is. At his 4 month doctor's visit, Ian was in the 95th percentile for height and I assumed it was just a fluke or a bad measurement. But now he's even bigger! I'm only 5'5" and my husband is only 5'10" so I'm not sure why Ian is so tall. My dad is 6" but that's still not *that* tall! I hope he continues to grow nice and big and stays healthy!

Ian caught his very first cold from the 7 hours he spent in his trial daycare on Friday. It doesn't seem terrible. His nose was runny on Sunday and he was pretty snotty on Monday but by yesterday, he was pretty much fine again. He did manage, however, to infect the 9 month old girl that was visiting during our Labor Day BBQ. Oops.

Trial Run at Daycare

We did a trial run at daycare on Friday. I dropped Ian off around 10 am, after his morning nap, and picked him up around 5 pm. I hung out at the daycare center for the first 2 hours, not because I was worried about him, but because there was so much to do. I learned how to fill out his daily sheet and I labeled his extra clothing, sheets, diapers, wipes and cereal. I spent some time getting to know the teachers in the room and they are great. My gut is giving the entire experience 2 thumbs up and I always trust my gut.

Ian had a really great time during the day. While I was watching him during the first 2 hours, he tried launching himself backwards over the boppy pillow. So the teacher piled another boppy pillow on top of the other pillow to make a higher barrier and he launched himself backwards over that too! He was scooting backwards all over the floor and getting his knees underneath his body. The teachers remarked that he would probably be crawling soon. Gah!

I was really pleased to hear that he drank all three four-4 ounce bottles that were given to him. Although we introduced bottles of expressed milk to Ian early on, I have nursed him almost exclusively lately. The only downside of the entire experience is that Ian only napped for a total of 30 minutes while at daycare. He was so tired when I came to get him, but was still being a champ. I put him in the car seat to take him home and he was asleep at 5 pm before I even got to the car! I tried to transfer him to his crib, but he woke up and just cried and cried. He was so over-tired and he didn't know what to do with himself. He was just melting. So I nursed him and put him to sleep again at 5:30 pm and he slept until 5:30 am the next morning!

My husband should be all set to drop Ian off at daycare next Monday. All of Ian's things are already there. My husband just has to show up with the baby and food for the day. Now if things just go smoothly for me to pump at work, I'll be all set!

Ian woke up with a drippy nose this morning. I think he may have his first cold (which he probably picked up at daycare on Friday!). He doesn't seem to be too bothered by it. I took his temperature and it was 99.7, so he is probably fighting off something but it's not too bad. I hope he feels better in the morning so that we can go to our last Tuesday play group.

And now for a food update: Our child eats everything. We introduced pears to him this morning. He gobbled it up. Yum!

The jury is in. We have a good eater!

Ian has now eaten two different vegetables. On Sunday, we introduced sweet potatoes to him and he didn't even react! I put the spoon in his mouth. He mushed it around, swallowed and then looked at me for more. It was like he'd been eating sweet potatoes for years! He had more of a reaction (negative) to the rice cereal that I made with water instead of breast milk. And since the pediatrician says that we can introduce new foods every 3-5 days, we decided to try sweet peas tonight. I was fully prepared for him to spit it out, but nope, he downed that too. He paused after the first spoonful hit his mouth like he was trying to figure out what was going on. But he didn't make any icky faces and swallowed like a champ. I think he likes the consistency of the sweet peas. But I'm so happy that he's such a good eater! It certainly makes my life easier. Now that we know he will eat vegetables, we will introduce a fruit next.

Ian's also been moving around a lot when I put him down on the floor. Gone is the time when I put him down and come back 5 minutes later to find him in the same place. He loves being on his tummy now. He pushes up on his arms and scoots backwards. I found him halfway across the room, off the rug and up against the wall today. And yesterday he was trying to get into the bottom of the exersaucer. Today he was pushing up on all fours and getting his knees underneath him. If he figures out how to move forward, I think he's strong enough to start crawling. Yikes! My husband and I really need to think about baby proofing the house!

And as for the weight update, at 5.5 months, Ian weighed 17 pounds, 13 ounces.

Tomorrow, we are going in for a trial run with day care. My biggest concern is how many bottles to bring and how much milk to put in the bottles! Ian has never had a drop of formula and has exclusively breastfed since birth. Although he takes the bottle when we give it to him now and then, I really have no idea how much milk he takes in on any given day. It's all very exciting!